Hello Stackers, The OpenStack Technical Committee would like to take a moment to reflect on the recently concluded elections [1][2]. Elections and renewal of governance are a cornerstone of our Open Community principle [3]. We firmly believe that well-governed projects are sustainable and successful. In the recent elections, we saw 78 electors cast their votes to elect members to the TC out of 173 eligible voters. Jeremy Stanley (fungi) is planning to follow up with some more detailed analysis, but I wanted to kick-start this thread to share a few insights and initiate a call-to-action. To be eligible to contest or vote in OpenStack elections, you must meet two criteria: - You must be an Active Contributor, which means you have had a change merged in the roughly one-year period prior to the elections. - You must be an "Individual Member" of the OpenInfra Foundation (not a "Community Member") at the time the electoral rolls are created. This date is published and typically occurs a few days before polling begins. For the recently concluded 2026.1 elections, we identified over 650 active contributors in the one-year timeframe. However, as you can see, the number of eligible voters and the number of actual voters were significantly smaller. We've identified a few key reasons for this: - Individual Membership Renewal: In the past few months, as the OIF has transitioned under the Linux Foundation, we asked all individual members to "renew" their memberships. OIF staff and OpenStack election officials noticed a drop in the electorate due to this new requirement. It's quite easy for an email seeking renewal to get lost in a crowded inbox. - Opt-in for Ballots: We host our elections with CIVS, a free and secure internet voting service. A ballot arrives via email when polling begins, but CIVS will not send you an email unless you have opted in. While we have tried to remind folks to enable these emails, they can still get "lost" in the noise. - Membership Type Confusion: Many of us may not realize that we need to be an "Individual" member of the OIF to participate in the governance process. I feel we need to do a better job of reminding people why this is needed, so they can make an informed choice about whether they'd like to impact the governance of OpenStack. Nearly 500 contributors are currently either "Community" members or have no affiliation with the OIF. We'd like to hear your thoughts and ideas on how we can improve in these areas (are there any more?). What can we do to ensure a wider and more engaged electorate in future elections? We believe that increasing participation is essential for the long-term health and success of the OpenStack community. Thank you, Goutham Pacha Ravi (gouthamr) OpenStack Technical Committee [1] https://lists.openstack.org/archives/list/openstack-discuss@lists.openstack.... [2] https://lists.openstack.org/archives/list/openstack-discuss@lists.openstack.... [3] https://opendev.org/openinfra/four-opens/src/branch/master/doc/source/openco....